Friday, 29 April 2011

We often use roses or other flowers as means of expressing our emotions to people on different occasions like red roses for deep and passionate love, pink roses for likeness or sunflowers for showing respect etc. But that flowers and flower arrangements have a proper language of their own where these can be used as codes to express our intentions and feelings towards others is something new to me. I was actually quite surprised to learn that from our local florist a few weeks back and its funny, how it kept me busy searching meaning of every second flower, fruit or vegetable that I bought lately.

And this is actually my motivation behind the assembling of these beautiful cupcake pots using fresh strawberries as symbol of perfection and “sweetness in life”. I think, strawberries with their majestic colour and unique frangrance are one of the most beautiful of fruits, and can bring exquisite joy to anyone.

Bring sweetness into the lives of your loved ones by making these simple and fruity strawberry cupcake pots!

strawberry cupcake pots

Arent they cute??? And the most important part is...these are so easy to make that it took me not more than 5 minutes on each cup to decorate.

You need:

Fresh strawberries
Marzipan and green food colour
Cupcakes
M & Ms, cornflakes and two small chocolate balls for making the bee.

Prepare the pot as for the Easter Goodies. Now take some fresh strawberries and make four small cuts on each side of the pointed end.

Again make a few cuts for making more petals.

Make few more flowers like this. Using a tooth pick, adjust these on the prepared cupcake pot. Place two yellow and one black or dark brown smarties/M & Ms on the marzipan grass to make the honey bee. I didnt have the yellow ones, so I simply used the orange smarties instead. Adjust the eyes and wings with the help of melted chocolate or any fruit jam of your choice.

Monday, 11 April 2011

I loooovvvveeee cheese!!! In MOST of its forms and varieties. Like all other sins, its delicious and irresistible and it is fattening as well but at the same time, it is so versatile and pairs so well with most of the foods that I cant resist adding it in our meals every second day...

These days, I am head over heels in love with the plain yellow cake with a slight cheesy flavour in it. Whether as short break snack with tea or a quick breakfast in the morning, its really IN at our house. I have lately used the same cake recipe for making cupcakes as well and since the experiment was so successful that I had to share it with all of you.

Preheat the oven at 180 C.
Take sugar and oil in a bowl, add food colour (just a pinch, youll be surprised how intense they get once you start adding eggs) and salt. Beat with the help of an electric mixer until the sugar is completely dissolved.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour and baking powder. Sieve thrice to remove any impurities.

Also beat cream cheese in a small bowl and add yoghurt into it.

Now start adding eggs to the oil mixture, one by one. Beat for 5 minutes at highest speed until the mixture turns thick. Add in the yoghurt-cheese mixture and beat for a few seconds until smooth and combined.

Now start adding flour mixture into this and fold with a spatula (or a wooden spoon would also do the job). If you are a beginner, try folding by rotating the spoon in the mixture making an "8".

Pour the mixture into the prepared cupcake/muffin pans not more than 3/4 full.

Bake for 15-25 minutes (depending on the size of your cupcakes and how reliable your oven is....). Take out from oven and place on the cooling rack.

I usually dust the cake with icing sugar. But for decorating the cupcakes, I made cream cheese frosting that goes along really well with their creamy texture.

Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Decorating cakes is a piece of cake!!! Trust me, its true. You need not necessarily buy your cakes from a bakery any longer; there is such a wide range of decorative accessories, cake mix, and instant icings in the market these days that even the inexperienced beginners can make beautiful cakes to delight family and friends. There are plenty of ways to decorate your cake, all you need to do is... use your imagination and try out new ideas!!!! Once you are ready to do that, you´ll figure out, how easy and addictive it can be.

Although I had planned writing a different post for today but the mini cakes that I baked a few days ago were so tempting that I had to fit them in this series of decorating cakes/cupcakes. As a matter of fact, they do belong here for the reason that I usually bake this cake in a regular baking pan but the cute mini tea cups in my kitchen cabinet were so inviting that I really wanted to do something with them. And the inspiration lead me to this interesting experiment of baking the cake in a tea cup:)

cake in a cup

Not only decorating accessories help you create a masterpiece but the way you present your art work is also very important. This is a dark chocolate cake with chocolate pudding filling and whipped cream topping dusted with cocoa powder:) Enjoy!!!

Place a saucepan over medium heat and combine sugar, cornstarch and cocoa powder in it. Mix with the back of spoon to remove lumps.

Add milk. Cook until thickened like a custard. Turn the heat down to medium low. Pour some of the chocolate mixture into the beaten egg yolk and pour the egg mixture back into the pan. This will prevent the eggs from scrambling.

Cook and stir for a few minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter,salt and vanilla. Transfer to a bowl, cover and allow to cool in the refrigerator. I usually make this a day ahead.

Add this to the egg mixture in three steps and fold carefully. The easiest way to fold is rotating the spatula in the batter making an 8 until the mixture is all even.

Generously butter the baking cups (make sure to use heavy duty, i.e. heat proof cups for this. China mugs are the best for this purpose). Dust with fine granulated sugar. Fill the cups a little higher than half with the batter and bake for 20-25 minutes (baking time varies, depending on the size of your mugs). Tip: bake only one cup first and then adjust the baking time accordingly for the rest of the cupcakes.

Tip: Check after 15 minutes with a wooden skewer and continue baking accordingly. Make sure not to overbake. Chocolate tastes horribly bitter if over baked and the cake will be too crumbly and dry to eat. Here, it is better to take out the mugs earlier than too late.

Cool the cakes in the mugs for 10 minutes. Remove from the mugs and cool completely on a wire rack before filling and icing. I did all this work a day ahead and filled the cakes next day.

Lop off the top of the mini cake. Make a small well with the help of a spoon. Put the small piece of cake to one side and transfer the cake back into the cup. Pour in the chocolate pudding. Then place the lid back on the top.

Decorate the top with whipped cream and dust with cocoa powder. Enjoy!!!

Here´s an another variation of the same cake served with ice-cream and different filling.

Tip: You can use anything that goes along with the flavour of the cake, e.g. strawberry jam/sauce, vanilla pudding/custard, caramel sauce.

Friday, 1 April 2011

There had been a time when pancake mix was a must on my groceries list. For some reason, I had never tried making pancakes from scratch until the day I realised how happily my son comes to the table when we have pancakes on it. So, I read the main ingredients stated at the back of the packet, revised my cake baking and omelet making experiences in my mind and decided to give it a try. And I must admit, the first time was a catastrophe because I had totally messed up the flour quantity and the result was more of a egg mousse than pancakes:D

I, then took a recipe from the all-knowing internet and after two three attempts on adjusting it according to our taste, here is my version of pancakes.......

Melt the butter and let it cool. In a bowl, whisk together eggs and the sugars.

Add melted butter to this. Mix yoghurt and milk and pour in the egg-mixture. Also add salt. Mix with light hands. In a second bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Sieve it thrice and start folding into the egg-mixture.

Don't overmix. The less you stir your batter, the fluffier your pancakes will be.

Heat a non stick griddle. Grease with butter and adjust heat on low-medium. Pour the batter carefully onto the griddle with the help of a ladle or a small cup ( fill approx. 1/4).

Cook until bubbly on top. Bubbles on top indicate it’s time to flip. This will take about 2-3 minutes. Flip and brown the other side as well.

Top with butter and powdered sugar and serve with raspberry sauce. I had some leftover creme patessiere that goes along great with the pancakes.

Take the frozen raspberries in a sauce pan with 100 g sugar and water. Cook on medium, stirring constantly. Take off from heat. Mix corn starch in 2-3 tbs of water. Add to the raspberry mixture and cook again for 2-3 minutes until the desired consistency is reached. The sauce will thicken further as it cools. Strain through a sieve.

Tip: You can double the pancakes recipe for making more.
Also, the leftovers freeze well for a microwave breakfast later.The raspberry sauce can be served warm or cold and will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. You may use other sauce of your choice instead of raspberry, e.g. Maple syrup, honey, strawberries, nutella or chocolate sauce etc.

A lot of my working friends have often told me how they dream about surprising their loved ones by cooking something special but their busy and hectic routine doesnt allow them to stand in the kitchen and invest hours in making these. Since I am a cooking-freak and not even working these days, I might not fully relate myself to their situation but there is one objective that we all share, i.e achieving great output with less effort and smaller use of resources in the minimum of time. So, here is one of my favourite quick meals that is not only easy to prepare but also great for taking away in boxes for picnics or work time meals.

In case you are using mutton, cut the boneless meat into very small cubes. Mix the meat with other ingredients except for the egg and puff pastry.

Now roll out the puff pastry and cut into small squares. I am using a ready-made puff pastry here. This can, however, be made in big batches at home and frozen. The experienced cooks may prefer it that way but if you're short on time or just beginning to work with this dough, you may like to opt for the pre-made. I personally dont mind including few ready made products to my cooking if the time is really short as these can be really helpful in whipping up magical meals in no time.

Place some filling in the middle of the square. Now fold the two opposite corners together and press the dough with your finger tips.

Again, fold the other two corners and make a pocket. Brush with beaten egg (tip: for more beautiful results, try using the yolk only). Sprinkle few cumin seeds on top and bake on 180 C for 15-20 min.

Enjoy as snack or a complete meal served with yoghurt-cheese dip and mashed potatoes.

Tip: In case you are living in a country where puff pastry is not easily available at the market and you want to save the effort of making it at home, try asking at the local bakeries.